SATURDAY 8 DECEMBER 2012

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Time: 9:00PM ET / 6:00PM PT

Manny Pacquiao 54(38)-4-2 vs. Juan Manuel Marquez 54(39)-6-1

What can I really say about 33-year old Pacquiao except he’s great? I mean, really great. He’s beaten most of the best fighters of this generation (except Floyd Mayweather Jr.). He’s won world titles in eight weight divisions. He’s still regarded as the current #1 P4P fighter by esteemed boxing publications.

Oh, except that he’s pretty much fighting the one dude who’s given him problems over and over again.

Juan Manuel Marquez is also great. He’s not considered “as great” as Pacquiao — but he’s great nonetheless. He’s 39-years old and still a top 10 P4P fighter. I can talk about all his wins, but there’s one fact about him that will remain true no matter what: Marquez just knows how to fight Pacquiao.

Spread over 7 years, Marquez has fought three close fights against Pacquiao. In 2004, they fought to a draw — despite Marquez being down three times in Rd 1. In 2008, Marquez lost to split decision by razor thin margins. Last year, the two fought another close fight. The judges were more decisive in Pacquiao’s direction, but a whole lot of people think Marquez deserved this fight more than the other fights.

This time, they hope to have a decisive fight once and for all. Except to say, I’m still not sure a fourth fight will decide anything.

A special WBO “Fighter of the Decade” belt is on the line. Consider the importance of this for whatever it’s worth.

Prediction: Marquez by UD

Javier Fortuna 20(15)-0 vs. Patrick Hyland 27(12)-0

23-year-old Fortuna is an interesting featherweight prospect groomed for big things. He’s got decent power with a 71% KO ratio with 4 of his last 5 fights ending by KO. There’s some good wins too under his belt: Yuandale Evans, Miguel Roman, Geyci Lorenzo, Hugo Orlando Gomez, and Derrick Wilson.

Hyland is 6 years older than Fortuna. He’s interesting in that he’s an undefeated Irish fighter with quality wins over the likes of Frankie Archuleta, Emmanuel Lucero, Fabrizio Trotta, Philippe Frenois, and Suat Laze. That said, he might have already reached his ceiling.

Miguel Vazquez 32(13)-3 vs. Mercito Gesta 26(14)-0-1

That said, he’s good. Maybe not as good as Adrien Broner — but almost. He’s a tall awkward fighter who just jabs you to death from the outside. He also has a superhuman chin.

How superhuman of a chin does he have? In two bouts, Canelo was unable to knock him out.

This is the 5th defense of his IBF lightweight belt — a belt he defended just a month and a half ago. He also has quality wins over Marvin Quintero, Daniel Attah, Ammeth Diaz, Marlon Aguilar, and Leonardo Zappavigna. His lone losses are to Canelo Alvarez (twice) and Timothy Bradley.

I’m praying that Gesta is much better than I think he is. For Gesta to win this fight would fill me with a fine sense of elation. Problem is, his best wins are over Ty Barnett, Ricardo Dominguez, Ivan Valle, and Oscar Meza. His win against Manuel Perez (16-6-1) is arguable — while Gesta was showboating, it looked like Perez was winning rounds.

Still, Gesta is way more exciting than Vazquez. I want him to have the belt.

Prediction: Vazquez by UD.

Location: Hull, Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Television: Channel 5 (UK), WealthTV (USA)

Time: 5:00PM ET / 2:00PM PT

James DeGale 13(9)-1 vs. Fulgencio Zuniga 25(22)-6-1

Think of 26-year-old DeGale as the Tony Bellew of super middleweights. Just as Bellew fought a close fight with Nathan Cleverly last year and lost; DeGale did the same with George Groves. DeGale might be world class, or he might just be a really good domestic. Who knows.

So far, though, DeGale has displayed great power with a 64% KO ratio. He also has wins over Hadillah Mohoumadi, Cristian Sanavia, Piotr Wilczewski, Paul Smith, and Carl Dilks.

This is Zuniga’s second fight in less than a month. In November, he fought Thomas Oosthuizen for the IBO super middleweight title. He actually has a habit of challenging for titles often. He’s challenged for the IBF light heavyweight, IBF super middleweight, WBO light heavyweight, and WBO light middleweight titles. Mostly, he’s come up short, except for a stint as an IBO super middleweight titlist back in 2007.

Kid Galahad 12(5)-0-0 vs. Ivan Ruiz Morote 15(7)-2(1)-0

22-year-old Galahad is one of the premier British super bantamweights. Though he only has 5 KOs, three of them have come in his last four fights. Thus far, Galahad has wins over Josh Wale, Jason Booth, and Paul Griffin.

Opposing him is Morote, who is 10 years older than Galahad. Morote has done well on the Spanish domestic scene, but came up short on the European continental level. Nonetheless, he has wins against Karim Quibir Lopez and Juan Garcia Martin. His two losses were against Jesus Garcia Escalona and Joaquin Cespedes.

Prediction Galahad by KO5.

Samir Mouneimne 10(3)-0-1 vs. David Savage 14(2)-1-1

25-year-old Mouneimne is another interesting British lightweight prospect with a tricky record. Yes, he only has 3 KOs, but two of them have come in his last three fights. His best win was his third fight in which he beat the previously undefeated Lee Selby.

Savage has no significant wins. His one loss was against Dougie Curran (3-5-1).

Prediction: Mouneimne by KO6.

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Television: NBC Sports Network (USA)

Time: 9:00PM ET / 6:00PM PT

Bryant Jennings 15(7)-0 vs. Bowie Tupou 22(16)-2

With lots of airtime on NBC Sports, 28-year-old Jennings is another Great American Hope for the heavyweight division. Now that Seth Mitchell lost his last fight in stunning fashion, expect Jennings to gain more attention.

There’s no doubt Jennings is getting better with every fight. Though he has a 47% KO ratio, 2 of his last 3 fights have ended by KO. He also has wins over such notable names as Chris Koval, Steve Collins, Siarhei Liakhovich, and the previously unbeaten Maurice Byarm.

A match-up against Tupou is great. Only two years older than Jennings, Tupou has a 67% KO ratio, and wins over Donnell Holmes, Manuel Quezada, Alexis Mejias. His two losses were against Malik Scott and the unheralded Demetrice King (14-17).

Prediction: Jennings by KO8.

Location: Katowice, Poland

Television: PolSat Sport (Poland)

Pawel Kolodziej 30(17)-0 vs. Garrett Wilson 13(7)-5-1

32-year-old Kolodziej is trying to burst into the elite of the cruiserweight division. So far, he has wins over Giulian Ilie, Mauro Adrian Ordialesk, Felix Cora Jr, John McClain, and Mark Krence.

Wilson is better than his record indicates. He has good wins over Andres Taylor, Chuck Mussachio, Omar Sheika, Aaron Williams, and Andres Taylor. On the flipside, he had three losses in 2010 — but he avenged one of them (Omar Shieka).

Prediction: Kolodziej by UD.

Damian Jonak 34(21)-0-1 vs. Jackson Osei Bonsu 43(29)-5-1

29-year-old Jonak is a middleweight with power. So far, he has wins over Laszlo Fazekas, Anderson Clayton, Alex Bunema, Mamadou Thiam, Jose Luis Cruz. His one draw was in 2009 against Mariusz Cendrowski.

Bonsu is two years older than Jonak with comparable power. He is a former EBU titlist with wins over Jimmy Colas (twice!), Jose Del Rio, Carlos Manuel Baldomir, unbeaten Viktor Plotnykov, and Brice Faradji. His losses were to Karlo Tabaghua, Randall Bailey, Selcuk Aydin, and Rafal Jackiewicz.

Location: Norcross, Georgia, USA

Michael Seals 13(9)-0 vs. Byron Mitchell 29(22)-10-1

30-year-old Seals is a fun cruiserweight prospect who has no significant wins. Still, his 69% KO ratio shows that he’s worth watching. 4 of his last 5 wins have come by stoppage. This is his first step up — let’s see how he does.

Mitchell is 9 years older than Seals, and is a former 2x WBA World super middleweight titlist. He’s far from his glory days, however. 5 of his last 6 fights have been losses. However, He has great wins over David Telesco, Zach Walters, Julio Cesar Green, Manny Siaca (twice), and Anton Robinson.

This is a good test for Seals.

Prediction: Seals by KO1

SUNDAY 9 DECEMBER 2012

Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania

Nasibu Ramadhan 10(4)-2 vs. Francis Miyeyusho 32(19)-10-2

Always keen to present competitive fights from around the world, I present to you this bantamweight match-up from Tanzania.

Ramadhan is the favourite here. He’s a good prospect whose record looks deceiving. He has a good quality win over Fadhili Majia. Though he has two losses, one of them was during his debut, the other one (against Juma Fundi) was avenged.

Miyeyusho is a good step up. He’s got experience on the world level — having fought in the UK, Phillipines, and South Africa. He’s also fought for the WBC International, Commonwealth, and WBO Asia-Pacific titles.

A win for Ramadhan will get him noticed around the world.

Prediction: Ramadhan by UD.

MONDAY 10 DECEMBER 2012

Tokyo, Japan

Hidenori Otake 18(9)-1-3 vs. Mikihito Seto 33(17)-9-2

The Japanese have one of the best domestic scenes, and this fight is no exception.

31-year-old Otake recently won the Japanese super bantamweight title, and this is his first defense. He has good wins over Takafumi Nakajima, Kentaro Masuda, and Manabu Fukushima. He hasn’t lost a fight since 2007.

He’s facing Seto, who is two years older than him. Yes, Seto has a lot more losses but he’s won against a who’s who of Japanese fighters: Yukihiro Nakamura, Kyohei Tamakoshi, Ryo Fueki, Yoshinori Miyata, Manabu Fukushima, and the unbeaten Akifumi Shimoda. Most losses came at the beginning of his career. However, he does have notable losses to Masaaki Serie (twice) and Shoji Kimura.

There's also Darren Barker's comeback fight for the IBF Inter-continental middleweight belt. Looks like the guy he's fighting isn't up to much but Darren has been out for a long time. Kal Yefai is on the undercard- massive prospect- he's only had 5 fights so far but he looks like he could go all the way. Worth watching. It'll probably be short.

Yeah, I saw that match-up. It was originally on a card featuring Lee Purdy vs. Carson Jones and Gavin Rees vs. John Murray. Those two match-ups aren't happening anymore, sadly.

Unfortunately, it's hard to gauge the competitiveness of Barker-Hope since Barker's been out for more than a year and Hope may have just got lucky against Proksa. But hey, if fireworks ends up happening, count me as stoked.